The blog highlights significant events and achievements in American aerospace history. The emphasis is on aviation and spaceflight. The blog seeks to inspire and motivate all Americans by honoring our country’s rich aerospace heritage.

Forty-nine years ago today, the United States successfully launched Orbiting Solar Observatory No. 1 (OSO-1) into Earth orbit. This robotic spacecraft provided the first detailed scientific examination of the Sun from space. The 1960′s was a time of both rapid growth and spectacular achievements in space exploration. Indeed, weather satellites, communications satellites and surveillance satellites [...]
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Fifty-five years ago this month, the USAF/North American X-10 experimental research vehicle hit a maximum speed of Mach 2.05 during its 19th test flight. The mark established a new speed record for turbojet-powered aircraft. The precedent set by the Nazi V-1 and V-2 Vergeltungswaffen (Vengeance Weapons) in World War II motivated the United States to launch a post-war effort [...]
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Fifty-six years ago this week, North American test pilot George F. Smith became the first man to survive ejection from an aircraft in supersonic flight. Smith ejected from his F-100A Super Sabre at 777 MPH (Mach 1.05) as the crippled aircraft passed through 6,500 feet in a near-vertical dive. On the morning of Saturday, [...]
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Fifty-years ago this week, the NASA SCOUT small launch vehicle successfully orbited the Explorer IX satellite. This achievement marked the first time that an all-solid propellant launch vehicle orbited an artificial satellite. The concept for the Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test (SCOUT) launch vehicle dates back to the late 1950′s. The National Advisory Committee For [...]
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Thirty-seven years ago this month, the Mariner 10 interplanetary space probe successfully conducted a flyby encounter with the planet Venus. The Venusian flyby served as a necessary prelude to a subsequent first-ever flyby of the planet Mercury. The Mariner Program concentrated on the scientific exploration of the inner planets of the solar system. Namely, Mars, [...]
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Thirty-seven years ago this month, the Mariner 10 interplanetary space probe successfully conducted a flyby encounter with the planet Venus. The Venusian flyby served as a necessary prelude to a subsequent first-ever flyby of the planet Mercury. The Mariner Program concentrated on the scientific exploration of the inner planets of the solar system …
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﻿ Fifty-years ago today, NASA successfully conducted a critical flight test of the agency’s Mercury-Redstone vehicle which helped clear the way for the United States’ first manned suborbital spaceflight. Riding the Mercury spacecraft into space and back was a 44-month old chimpanzee by the name of HAM. Project Mercury was America’s first manned spaceflight program. Simply put, [...]
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Fifty-years ago today, NASA successfully conducted a critical flight test of the agency’s Mercury-Redstone vehicle which helped clear the way for the United States’ first manned suborbital spaceflight. Riding the Mercury spacecraft into space and back was a 44-month old chimpanzee by the name of HAM …
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